Wrap It Up
by spacegypsy1
Summary: Daniel plays Santa’s helper. D/V.


Wrap It Up.

Spacegypsy1

Daniel plays Santa's helper. D/V.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Daniel?" The word drifted lightly across the office, barely reaching him.

"Hmm?" It wasn't really short and agitated, but still he sounded somewhat disgruntled.

"I know you're busy." She moved forward, cautiously.

"Yep." Head down, hand frantically scribbling, he attempted to ignore her.

"I have a problem." She saw it. That thing he did. One hard, slow blink, nostrils flaring as he drew that disturbed breath. Pen stopping mid-word. Mouth set.

It took him long, painful seconds to raise his eyes, then his face and finally to turn. "Holy Buckets!"

She stood closer now and he inspected her. Vala wore a head full of huge rollers, and a satiny Kimono type robe that barely covered her…ah…hips. His gaze drifted down creamy white thighs, across perfectly formed knees, to shapely legs, and finally toes spread wide with those foamy things she used when she polished her toenails.

When his eyes returned to her face she looked sincerely distressed. And the fact that she remained quiet was the giveaway. Something troubled her. _Toenail polish lost? Can't decide what to wear? Shiny hairclip broken?_

"I hate to ask, Daniel, but I really need your help. I'm supposed to go to that Christmas Charity Ball with Muscles, and I didn't know until just a moment ago that I'm supposed to bring a gift. For a ten year old boy. And Muscles is not due back from P whatever for an hour. Sam has disappeared without telling me where she was going and Cameron is – as you know and we're not supposed to know – out with Carolyn for the day. So, darling, I need you to go and get something nice, and wrap it in some kind of wonderfully delightful glittery paper with a spectacular bow. Can you do that for me?"

Mouth agape he blink. Rapidly this time. "I didn't know that."

"Really? I thought everyone knew."

"They're dating?"

She nodded emphatically.

"Wow. Strange. Okay. I'll do it. What do you want?" Daniel began to organize his desk, with a bit of haste and not looking to happy about being interrupted.

"I haven't a clue. But I need it right away. Muscles said to be ready to go when he got back. I just polished my toenails, and my hair is not set right. And I have to decide what to wear. And I broke my favorite hair clippie!"

"You know you shouldn't walk around the base like that." He swallowed, cleared his throat and looked away.

"Oh, posh! Don't be silly. I do it all the time and no one even notices me." She waved and smiled before leaving.

"I doubt that." He mumbled after she left.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

He thought it would be a nightmare to shop Christmas Eve, but found he enjoyed it. He also thought it would be difficult to find something for a ten year old boy, but it turned out to be easy and fun. He found something he would have enjoyed as a boy – a science kit full of interesting experiments. He left it on the shelf and purchased the Nintendo DS bundle and a few extra games. The woman offered to wrap it, making his adventure into Christmas shopping all the more effortless.

Done in under thirty minutes he wandered the mall window shopping just for the joy of it. Finding a small pink feathery tree staring at him from the other side of the glass he wandered in and bought it for Vala.

But of course it didn't come with decorations. She'd like it anyway. Down the row of shops his feet faltered at the open doorway of a place called Claire's. A Vala dream world. He walked out with fifteen shiny, sparkly, shimmering and glittery hair… 'Thingies'. If he clipped them on the pink tree…well, they could be the decorations.

The Christmas music lightened his steps and he found himself humming. Which stopped abruptly in front of the jewelry store window. There was this tiara sitting on red velvet looking for all the world like fallen stars. With a price tag to match.

"Yes, wrap it." He handed over his credit card without a second thought.

He needed coffee. But he never actually made it past the Godiva store. "Wrap it up, please."

Hands laden with multiple bags Daniel found himself lost. Which way had he entered the mall? Wandering aimlessly the once reluctant shopper found Victoria's Secret. Holy Buckets. He must be insane.

"No." Hands spread apart, he told the young woman. "Tiny, but not short. She's small, but…you know, perfect."

The woman held up something that made Daniel blush. "Ah. Er. Ahm. Yes. Wrap it?"

He rushed out, finding his way to the entrance and escaping before he completely lost his mind.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Since her door was ajar, he pushed it open, both hands tightly and nervously clutching the bags.

"Daniel!? What's all this? One gift. I'm only supposed to bring one!" She was trying to get something shiny into her hair.

"Oh. Right. Well, I did get the gift. But…I thought you might like this." Placing the boy's gift on her bed, he turned back to the table, set the other bags on the floor and fished around pulling out the pink tree. She squealed – high pitched and ear piercing - and threw her arms around his neck, kissed his mouth, and pulled back rubbing her hands together before plucking up the treat.

While she set it on the table and began to fluff it up, he noticed she was wearing some kind of black slinky dress. It clung. To everything. He started sweating. His mouth still tingling from the touch of hers. Wondering. Trying to reconcile what was going on in his head…and other unmentionable places.

Standing behind her, eyes locked on her tush a moment, he fought for breath. "I…ah, got you some things you can use on the tree, and…and later for your hair." He thrust the Claire's bag towards her.

Vala half smiled, teeth nibbling at the side of her bottom lip, twisting back in forth with happiness. _Ah, a gift from Daniel. _What could make Christmas more Christmasy? _Well he could have wrapped it up._

One after the other, lovely and glitzy hair clips, barrettes and banded bobbles appeared and she ooo'd and ahh'd at each one. As she placed them one at a time on the table, Daniel picked them up and clipped them to the feathery pink branches.

Hesitating at the red and green rhinestone twin clippies, Vala lifted awe filled eyes to Daniel. "They're perfect. Could I wear them tonight?"

He smiled and placed a palm against her cheek. "They're yours. You can wear any…or all of them whenever you want to."

She turned away to the mirror and removed the old bobble and placed the Christmas clips on either side, pulling the hair from her face. "How's that?" Vala turned quickly finding herself chest to chest with Daniel

"Nice." He whispered, eyes intent on her mouth.

Her words breathed across his lips. "Thank you, Daniel."

"I, ah, got you something else." He took a step back, cleared his throat and dug into the second bag. "You can't open this one until tomorrow morning. Promise? Or should I take it with me until then?"

Vala stared hungrily at the Godiva package. "No, I promise not to open it. I'll need it to put under my tree, though. But, Daniel. It's not like I don't know what's in it."

"Right. Maybe we could have breakfast in the morning, and you can open it then. I could bring a tray back here. Say about seven? Looking at his watch he told her, "You're gonna be late."

"Oh! Right." She fluffed her hair and slipped her high heels on. "Although, I was invited to Walter's little get together in the control room in the morning. They're having cookies and hot chocolate. But I'll stop by before seven." She grinned lopsidedly and turned away.

He finished putting the clippies on the tree suddenly realizing she would have spent Christmas practically alone. Not one of her teammates had invited her to celebrate with them. Daniel rarely celebrated Christmas holidays, but still that was no excuse. He felt awful, then very glad he'd taken the spur of the moment to buy her gifts.

"ValaMalDoran, you are ready?" Teal'c appeared in her door way.

She turned, but her gaze landed on one of the other bags Daniel had brought in. There she glanced at a Victoria's Secret package and a lovely golden wrapped box. _Who could those be for? Maybe for Samantha? Pfft, Daniel wouldn't buy something at Victoria's Secret for Samantha! _"Yes, Muscles, ready as I'll ever be." _Maybe it was something non-sexy. They did have a few things she'd seen. Like lotion and soap. That's probably what it is. Although, he should know that a man doesn't buy a woman a present from Victoria's Secret unless he wants sex. Poor Samantha, she was going to be so embarrassed. _

Teal'c nodded at Daniel. "You are helping to decorate?"

"Yep. Thought she needed a little Christmas spirit. You two have fun tonight. I'll just finish up here." He grinned at Vala. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you, Daniel."

Once they were gone, Daniel took the tiara box and put it under her tree and then stood staring at it afraid to give her the Victoria's Secret gift. He took the package out and set it near the tree. What would she think? _What the hell do you think she's going to think!? When a man gives a woman something like that she's going to think he wants sex. _

Then he put it back into the shopping bag. _So? _He took it out again and once more put it on the table. _Is that really what you want?_ Again, the package got taken away. _It doesn't have to be about sex. _Back to the table it went._ It can be about intimacy. Making love. Holy Buckets! _And into the bag it went again.

"Daniel?"

He jumped, turning around quickly, face aflame. "Oh, hi, Sam."

"Vala already gone?"

"Ah, yeah."

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, just making a little Christmas kinda thing here, you know. Christmas…thing."

Smiling sweetly, Sam entered and placed a Christmas gift under the tree. "That's really nice. I had to take care of some things today, and I've been so busy, I forgot to ask her if she wanted to come over tonight after her party. I feel terrible. I should have asked her earlier."

"Ah, right. I invited her to Christmas breakfast."

"Great. Cam and Carolyn wanted us to have dinner tomorrow with them. Carolyn's going to cook. She wanted me to let everyone know. It was sort of a last minute thing, but we generally don't have much of a Christmas. Things are quieter now, so I told her yes. Hope you don't mind?"

"No. Sounds great. What time?"

"Threeish. Daniel?"

"Hmm?"

"What's in the Victoria's Secret package you're so unsure about?"

He blushed. "It's, ah, pphhh, ahm, I think it's a little to early for…ahm…you know…but it sorta fits her personality. But she might get the wrong idea. Not that it's wrong, really. What do you think?"

"I think I won't call her and invite her for tonight. I'll just let Teal'c know he can drop her off and then come by. Jack will be in late, he'll come by too. So the three of us will meet you two tomorrow at Carolyn's. Leave the package, Daniel. I think it's a perfect gift. And don't forget to disconnect the camera. Siler's off and there's a skeleton crew. Nobody's going to notice it." Sam left him standing there totally at wits end.

He heard her soft laugh as she left. Pulling the aforementioned perfect gift out he stared at it, stuck it back into the nondescript bag, and took it with him as he made his way to his office.

It took him four cups of coffee and two hours, most of which were spent deciding on just the right combination of box, pen and parchment... and breaking out in a cold sweat every time he touched the present. He'd removed the gift (what there was of it) from the signature packaging. In the end he had the gift wrapped in an antique wooden box covered in parchment carefully folded and sealed with wax and a note written with a gold pen.

It simply read: Merry Christmas, Vala, love, Daniel.

It was lying on his chest when she returned. He was lying on her bed.

End-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Merry Christmas, Pace e salute, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah, Sretan Bozic, Froehliche Weihnachten, Buone Feste Natalizie, Hristos se rodi, Srozhdestvom Kristovym, Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo, Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok, Hyvaa joulua, Shub Naya Baras, Gledelig Jul, Boze Narodzenie, God Jul.


End file.
